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Current Hepatology Reports
Published in: Current Hepatology Reports 1/2017

01-03-2017 | Hepatic Cancer (A Singal and A Mufti, Section Editors)

Tailored Algorithms for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Surveillance: Is One-Size-Fits-All Strategy Outdated?

Authors: Nicolas Goossens, C. Billie Bian, Yujin Hoshida

Published in: Current Hepatology Reports | Issue 1/2017

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Current clinical practice guidelines recommend regular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surveillance with biannual ultrasound with or without serum alpha-fetoprotein uniformly applied to all patients with cirrhosis. However, clinical implementation of this one-size-fits-all strategy has been challenging as evidenced by very low application rate below 20% due to various reasons, including suboptimal performance of the surveillance modalities.

Recent Findings

Newly emerging imaging techniques such as abbreviated MRI (AMRI) and molecular HCC risk biomarkers have increasingly become available for clinical evaluation and implementation. These technologies may have a potential to reshape HCC surveillance by enabling tailored strategies. This would involve performing optimized surveillance tests according to individual HCC risk and allocating limited medical resources for HCC surveillance based on cost-effectiveness.

Summary

Tailored HCC surveillance could lead to achievement of precision HCC care and substantial improvement of the current dismal patient prognosis.
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Metadata
Title
Tailored Algorithms for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Surveillance: Is One-Size-Fits-All Strategy Outdated?
Authors
Nicolas Goossens
C. Billie Bian
Yujin Hoshida
Publication date
01-03-2017
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Current Hepatology Reports / Issue 1/2017
Electronic ISSN: 2195-9595
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11901-017-0336-z

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